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ESPN staff 7y

Bruce Arena: March qualifiers call for experienced U.S. squad

United States coach Bruce Arena says March's World Cup qualifiers won't be "the right environment" for players new to the national team.

Arena brought in seven uncapped players for this month's training camp, most notably LA Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget, but there are also a number of veterans.

And Arena told ESPN's Taylor Twellman that the importance of the March qualifiers played a factor in his decision to call up players like Brad Evans, Chris Wondolowski and DaMarcus Beasley.

"We need to have some balance and certainly World Cup Qualifiers aren't the right environment to bring in players that don't have any international experience," Arena said.

"So, we know the players you've mentioned are certainly experienced at this level, and hopefully they can add some depth and/or experience to the roster."

Arena said he was pleasantly surprised with his players' fitness a few days into camp, which comes in the middle of the MLS offseason.

"Well we're using the ball to do a little bit of fitness, but surprisingly we've observed that their fitness is pretty good, but we need to see guys play," he said. "We need to see you know, we need a team that can play, that can be cohesive and we don't need it to be spending a lot of time running around in circles. We need to get them on the field, get the ball out and see what they're about."

Arena was also optimistic on the condition of Stoke City's Geoff Cameron, who has joined up with camp to be examined by the U.S. training staff while he's sidelined by a knee injury.

"Well certainly it's concerning," he said. "But we have him here in Los Angeles and he's been looked at by our doctors and we're confident that he's headed in the right direction."

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